Slot machines provide an important source of income for the gaming industry. For that reason, gaming establishments constantly search for marketing strategies to appeal to slot machine players and to distinguish their slot machines from competitive installations. U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,613, entitled "Casino and Entertainment System", describes a slot machine installation wherein gaming devices are provided with audio/video communication equipment that is connected to a central control station. The control station selectively engages in both voice and video communication with the players at each individual slot machine. Various promotions can be offered to the players through the video and audio communication facilities and live sporting events and even daytime soap opera television can be displayed.
It is well known that advertisers integrate advertising messages into video games. For instance, the billboards in some car-racing games are paid advertisements, in much the same manner as advertisers pay to have their messages displayed on billboards at a real race track.
Direct response advertising is well known and widely practiced. A direct response advertisement aims to elicit an order or inquiry upon the message being shown to a potential consumer. The response mechanism is often the return of a physical order coupon or the placing of a toll-free call to the direct response advertiser. Direct response advertising is now being attempted through electronic networks where the consumer can respond, electronically, from a computer terminal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,411 entitled "Interactive System for a Closed Cable Network" provides an example of a prior art direct response advertising system. There, a closed cable network is described which includes means for transmitting and receiving telephone messages. As an example, the network is installed in a hotel and provides hotel guests with facilities for catalog shopping. Media information is fed to the guest's room via a television monitor. The guest can then select from a number of shopping sources by interacting with a catalog order desk which then bills the guest's room directly. The billing can occur through the hotel's account computer or can be charged to a credit card transaction. A receipt is then printed at the front desk of the hotel and the goods are delivered either to the hotel or the home address of the guest.
Modern slot machines are often networked, via a local area network, and are centrally controlled from a server (i.e., a computer operating under control of server software/firmware). Such a system is capable of handling any kind of digital information, both from the server to the individual slot machines and vice-versa. Since a slot machine has a coin acceptor, it is capable of receiving payment, measuring the amount of payment received and communicating such amount to the server. Many of the more modern slot machines display video reels instead of the well known mechanical reels. For slot-style gaming devices, such as video poker, and video blackjack, the card faces are all video.
There is a continuing desire on the part of gaming establishments to increase the services that are provided to players at each gaming device. Further, there is a desire to provide such services, based upon intelligent conclusions regarding characteristics of the player and a matching thereof to offered products and services.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a gaming system wherein advertising can be provided to slot-style gaming devices and which allows a player to respond to and benefit from such advertising messages.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a system for provision of advertising/product/pricing information to slot machine players, wherein the information is intelligently chosen based upon conditions at the slot machine and characteristics of the player.